traitor • cmb

08; how did it happen

corbyn

I haven't talked to erica since tuesday and it's now friday. she's been avoiding me since I got annoyed with her criticizing my girlfriend when she doesn't know her. I know I overreacted and I feel bad throwing last years incident in her face as a reason not to go out with brett.

me and brett haven't gotten along since freshman year when, on the football team, we were both competing to be the best and to be captain. I got the role of captain which just made him hate me more and caused him to fuck up all the plays we made, almost costing us the season.

anyways, erica is free to go out with whoever she wants. I don't even know why I was so upset. I figured I'd go by her place and talk things out. basically giving her no choice but to talk to me.

I got to her place and ring the doorbell, seeing her grandma answer.

that's odd.

"grandma jones?" I say while smiling at the precious, little old lady.

she gasped "well if it isn't my favourite. good to see you corbyn, looking good with your new hair" she says pulling me in a hug. me and erica are both so close with each others families. I wonder what her grandmas doing here though?

"what brings you here sweetheart?" she says closing the door behind me as I step inside.

"just wanted to talk to erica, we got into a little argument and I wanted to apologize for things I had said" I say to her.

"ahh well you two always figure it out. she's in her art room down the hall, painting." she tells me with a smile.

"thank you. by the way, where's mr and mrs jones?" I ask her as her smile drops.

"oh that's right, you weren't here this summer. I'll let erica tell you that herself sweetie"

"oh ok, thank you again, it was a pleasure seeing you again." I say as I walk up the stairs, what else happened over summer? why didn't she tell me?

erica

I was in element, painting and listening to my music. anytime I needed a break from reality, i'd come here and just paint my feelings away. it used to be my parents work room for when they were home but still needed to work. when they passed, grandma helped my make this into a room for me, for good memories.

"when did you do this" I hear corbyn say over my music, scaring me a little bit.

I just look at him, then back at my painting, trying to concentrate again.

"what are you doing here besson" I say not looking away from my painting.

he comes over and takes the brush out of my hand, careful enough to not ruin it, just so I would look at him. I did just what he wanted and stared into those beautiful greenish blue eyes of his almost getting lost in them. damn why does he have this affect on me.

"I wanted to say i'm sorry for the way I acted on tuesday. it's not my business who you go out with and who you don't, at the end of the day I just care about your happiness." he says looking me dead in the eyes. he meant it but I'm not going to give it so easily.

"great, thanks" I say going to reach for my brush, but he just pulled it farther back and higher so I really couldn't reach it. In my attempt, our faces came really close, to the point where our noses were almost touching.

"I'm serious jones. I was a dick and you didn't deserve that. I'm really sorry" he says not moving away from how close we were. ok maybe I was gonna give in easily.

"it's ok corbyn, I know you don't like him. sorry I freaked out on you about madison. it's not my business who you date either." I say moving back and looking down at the ground.

he moves his hand to grab my chin and lift my face so that I was facing him again.

"it's all good ric. besties again." he says moving his hand and sticking his pinky up.

"yea, besties" I say locking my pinky with his.

not only was I friend zoned, I was best friend zoned. even worse. he gave me my paint brush back and looked over at what I was painting. It was a cherry blossom tree with a picnic table under it. it's where my dad asked my mom to marry him.

"it's where my parents got engaged" I say breaking the silence of us just starting at the unfinished painting.

he looked me and asked the question I wasn't sure how to answer, "where are your parents?"

"they died at the beginning of the summer" I say looking at corbyn. his looked turned from curious to sad in the matter of seconds. it was actually heartbreaking to see. they were like second parents to him.

"how did it happen" he says looking down.

"plane crash. they were coming from florida back to la and there were no survivors." I say as a tear falls from my cheek, landing on his hand, causing his head to shoot up in my direction.

he instantly pulls me in a hug and lets me cry on his shoulder. this is what I needed when it happened. I'm just glad to have him in general. we pull away from the hug and I see that he was crying now too.

"I am so sorry I was not here for you, for them." he says while still crying, breaking my heart even more.

"corbyn don't do that to yourself. you left to help yourself, to help you get happier and it worked. you know how good it was to see you come back all happy. that's all I wanted to see the first day of school" I tell him grabbing his face. he should not feel bad for focusing on himself for once.

"yea but I could've gotten better here, with you while you were going through something even harder." he replies.

"corbyn, really, it's ok. I promise you it's ok." I say hugging him this time. I don't want him feeling bad for looking after his own mental health.

we pull away from the hug and wipe all our tears away. then grandmas knocked lightly on the door.

"corbyn, honey, would you like to stay for dinner" she asks him.

he looks at me with a smile them looks back at her.

"I'd love to, let me just tell my mom" he says pulling his phone out to text his mom.

grandma winks at me when he's not looking and I just shake my head with a smile as she walks away. I look over at corbyn texting his mom just admiring him. damn I'm really falling in too deep for my own good.

-

authors note

hehe see what I did there😏

ANYWAYS AHHH, THIS WAS A SAD ONE. LOWKEY TEARED UP WRITING IT.

IT ONLY GETS WORSE JNVRSUIVBBVRS IM SORRY-

love y'all thank you for almost 200 reads🥺